Anime Features

Meet us in the Fun Magic Club Room right after school for a look at the ridiculously fun Magical Sempai It’s all fun and games until someone loses their lunch, and when the previously anonymous, newly christened Assistant (voiced by Aoi Ichikawa), an ordinary high …Read more »

Nichijou is both a furiously energetic comedy and a simplistic and endearing display about the trials and tribulations of everyday life. For an anime whose title roughly translates to mean “My Ordinary Life,” Nichijou, the 2011 spring adaptation of Keiichi Arawi’s popular slice-of-life/comedy manga, has a very …Read more »

What is it that causes teenagers to act the way they do? To lash out in anger. To go from being an outgoing child to an introverted young adult. Whatever the “affliction” may be, symptoms of youth in revolt come in many forms, and a …Read more »

At Otakon 2019 in Washington, DC I was able to see an advance screening of Promare, the first theatrical film offering from anime studio TRIGGER. Courtesy of the film’s US distributor, GKIDS Films, I was able to ask them collectively some questions leading up to the …Read more »

None of the zombies of Zombie Land Saga have a heartbeat, but they certainly have a lot of heart Sakura Minamoto just had the worst day of her life. One minute she’s on her way to submit her application to be an idol singer, and …Read more »

What’s Your Sign? Ask any shojo fan that hungrily devoured anime and manga in the 2000s what one of the greats is, and you’ll undoubtedly get the same answer: Fruits Basket. Natsuki Takaya’s emotional roller coaster of a shojo series quickly became one of the …Read more »

Love can often bloom in the most unexpected places. It’s a trope that romance fans know all about, how the meet-cute between two protagonists at a café or some sort of once-in-a-lifetime event transforms into a beautiful love story. It becomes clear the couple in …Read more »

Way Out Truth be told I was a late convert to the church of anime director Kunihiko Ikuhara, and even now consider myself something of a skeptic. While I’ve since come to appreciate his unbridled artistry and technique as well as his utterly unique narrative …Read more »

A Party of One The trend for so many popular series of the past few years has been to have social underachievers—often stand-ins for the author and/or perceived target audience—suddenly placed into a scenario where they are now innately excellent, who then proceed to exert …Read more »

Flash Of The Blade We’re all forced to deal with our own hardships. Some of them are more intense than others, but we all go through difficult times in our lives. In the case of Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, protagonist Hyakkimaru has been subjected to far more …Read more »

True Confessions! I think it’s safe to say that whoever said that all is fair and love and war clearly never met Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane, respectively the vice president and president of Shuchiin Academy’s student council. Rumors fly by here and there, and …Read more »

How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord shows what happens when you end up in a world shockingly similar to your favorite video game. Wouldn’t it be great if video game skills were transferable to real life? Unless you’re planning to work in the Mushroom …Read more »

Stage Struck! Revue Starlight gives us a surreal backstage view of show business complete with sword duels and talking giraffes When you think of musical theater, you might thinks of shows like Rent, Aladdin, and Wicked. Bright colors, awesome musical numbers, insane wardrobes, and a lot of sparkle: …Read more »

A Different World Imagine being transported to another world where you’re recruited to become a hero. Not just any hero, but a fated protector of legend who’s been transported from your own reality simply to fix the issues in another one. That’s the root of …Read more »

My Girlfriend Is Shobitch is an anime about a girl trying a bit too hard to be the ideal girlfriend. When a couple is really, truly in love, they don’t need words to communicate. That’s the belief, anyway … and a lot of times, that …Read more »